Archive for July 10th, 2008
July 10th, 2008
Drum roll, please.
Comment No. 1 on the post just below this one is the 3,000th we’ve received since the inception of this blog some six months ago.
This milestone submission came from a guy who calls himself Menlo Bob, a frequent contributor to Applesauce (if not always a keen observer of the political scene — he disagrees with me too often).
With our heartfelt thanks, Menlo Bob will receive a lifetime pass to the beautiful Midway Theater in downtown Rockford, where the current bill has William Lundigan (shown above at the height of his memorable television career) and Rhonda Fleming starring in “Serpent of the Nile,” an entertaining (albeit low-budget) retelling of the story of Antony and Cleopatra.
Congratulations, Bob, and enjoy the movies.
UPDATE: I’m told that the Midway Theater is no longer open and that the William Lundigan movie is out of print (or whatever it is that happens to movies nobody bothered to preserve).
Well, gosh, I guess that’s just tough luck for Menlo Bob. I hope his disappointment doesn’t deter him from passing along more of his insights here at Applesauce.
July 10th, 2008
This story, which I’ve run across in several places on the Internet, represents a harbinger of our current presidential campaign season:
In 1948, during his first race for the U.S. Senate, Lyndon Johnson was running about 10 points behind, with only nine days to go. He was sunk in despair. He was desperate. And it was just before noon on a Monday, they say, when he called his equally depressed campaign manager and instructed him to call a press conference for just before lunch on a slow news day and accuse his high-riding opponent, a pig farmer, of having routine carnal knowledge of his barnyard sows, despite the pleas of his wife and children.
His campaign manager was shocked. “We can’t say that, Lyndon,” he supposedly said. “You know it’s not true.”
“Of course it’s not true!” Johnson barked at him. “But let’s make the bastard deny it!”
July 10th, 2008
THIS is so boorish.
And THIS is so typical (including the misspelled headline).
July 10th, 2008
Wow! THIS is becoming an embarrassment.
And he still calls himself Mr. Straight Talk?
UPDATE: He’s also doing well in the falsehoods derby, as we see HERE.
July 10th, 2008
It’s about time that somebody spoke the truth about all this crybaby stuff concerning the economy. And who better to do it than Phil Gramm (above, left), vice chairman of a giant Swiss bank and top economic adviser to John McCain?
You remember Phil Gramm, don’t you? He’s a former U.S. senator from Texas, in which capacity he sponsored a nifty little piece of legislation eight years ago to “protect financial institutions from overregulation.” Granted, some folks SAY the measure helped bring on the subprime mortgage crisis, but what do they know?
True to his Texas roots, Gramm is a straight-shooter who says what he means and means what he says. For example, just the other day he SAID that America has become a “nation of whiners” with all their complaints about the soft economy.
The economy’s just dandy, he said, and any notions to the contrary are purely “mental.”
Not surprisingly, there’s talk that Gramm would be appointed treasury secretary in a McCain administration.
Well, that settles it. I know who I’m voting for. Yes, sir, I know for sure.
UPDATE: The McCain camp initially STOOD BEHIND Gramm’s remarks this morning but then backed away.
July 10th, 2008
By now you’re aware that the Rev. Jesse Jackson has apologized for whispering a vulgar disparagement of Barack Obama that was picked up by a microphone during a break in a television interview.
Apparently, Jackson resents what he regards as the condescending tone of Obama’s not-so-subtle admonitions to African-American men to assume their responsibilities as fathers.
Obama has been “talking down to black people,” opined Jackson in the soto voce remarks picked up by the microphone.
The great irony in this controversy is its twist on the fatherhood angle. Jackson’s son, U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., a co-chair of Obama’s campaign, sternly RIPPED his father for his remarks.
My take on the matter is this: To the extent that Jackson Sr. instilled any worthy values in his son, the younger man honored them by disowning his father’s lapse.
